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PlayStation 2 Software Synopsis 115

Posted by Hemos from the whats-going-with-the-system dept.
rubbadubdub writes: "OK, so the cat's outta the bag with the PS2 but SEGames is continuing their coverage and for those of you that were able to actually get a Playstation2, they've done a complete round-up of all the current games, which might be worth an Xmas list placement or not. It seems as though the launch titles, bar a couple of exceptions, aren't all that."
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PlayStation 2 Software Synopsis More

PlayStation 2 Software Synopsis

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  • "Looks like they've been recycling the games from my old Commodore C64." They enhanced the sound.
  • According to Daily Radar [dailyradar.com], Metal Gear Solid 2 will also appear on the X-Box.

    I tried to dig up the news blip that appeared soon after E3, but too little time to find it. It just said that Konami isn't signed exclusively to Sony and that they would be porting all of their major titles over to X-Box, including MGS2, although it was going to be called something like MGS-X.

    And now that Oddword Inhabitants has jumped off the PS2 machine and is X-Box exclusive, this give me more than an excuse to get one.

    3 games I'm waiting for on that system: Halo, MGS, Munch's Oddyssee.
  • I have been quite disapppointed by the titles avalibale at the moment in the UK. I got mine last week as a package deal with three titles: Ridge Racer V, FIfa 2001 and Fantavision. Ridge Racer V is a very boring driving game with not that amazing graphics. Fifa 2001 (soccer) is quite fun with two players but isn't the most orginal game and Fantavision hasn't arrived yet due to Dixon's (an UK electonics retailer) incompentence. I rented Time Splitters from Blockbusters and I thought it had pretty graphics but the single player mode was pretty bad although with two players its a good old fashioned bllod bath.. Also I ordered a memory card and a dvd remote and these haven't arrived either. So at the moment I'm not too impressed by the experience as I can't save any games and using the game controller as a remote is pretty cumbersome. On the positive side the graphics are pretty smooth and lok good on TV and the DVD playback is also very good. Some of the games coming out next year also look very good I would advise people in the UK to wait until Spring to buy one when all the acessories are in good quantity and there are wider selection of games.
  • Check out Theme Park Rollercoaster. It's a very addicting theme park management sim (sounds corny, but think: SimCity meets Six Flags and you'll have a good idea as to what to expect). Also try out Super Bust-a-Move for some wacky puzzle action.

    -------------
  • One of the themes we keep repeating in the gaming world is that Nintendo tends to produce technologically backwards systems (with the possible exception of the Gamecube), but stellar games.

    Maybe in the NES/SNES era, but the N64 has been woefully lacking any stellar games. I can count the truly great AAA N64 games on one hand. The Dreamcast already has more than that, and the PSX has several times that many.

    --

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • The backgrounds I saw were alive. Did you see the one with the 100 guys doing Tai Chi ?
  • Much hay has been made about the PS2 not playing MP3s.

    But there are many other problems, features Sony promised that never made the final product.

    Although the PS2 does toast bread, it does not do so evenly. And often crumbs become stuck in the heat sink, causing over-toasting.

    Even if you are at sea, the PS2 cannot officiate a wedding ceremony.

    keep repeating that until the shaking stops

    find out what Ming The Merciless thinks about Election2000 [ridiculopathy.com]

  • The biggest thing with the PS2... (Score:3)

    by Gendou ( 234091 ) on Monday December 11, 2000 @05:52AM (#567582) Homepage
    It seems that most software for the PS2 only tries to take advantage of the hardware by making busy scenes. Populating backdrops with lots of innocent bystanders, surely makes it look interesting, but I'm sure it wouldn't add too much to the game play.

    I guess we'll have to wait a little while before we see games that show some serious creativity. I'm impressed, but there's better ways of using that horsepower. :-)

  • I concur. I made two purchases with my PS2 - Smuggler's Run and Silent Scope. I'm pretty happy with SR (especially the two- player mode, which is a blast!) but I don't like Silent Scope. I'll probably try to finish Silent Scope and then trade it in for a newer game. Other than SSX there are no other games on PS2 that interest me right now. (I already own UT for PC.)
  • I can speak as someone who is not blinded by irrational patriotism toward a single gaming platform (i.e., "PS2 RULEZ! DC SUCKZ", etc, etc). I have a Dreamcast and a PS2 (and an N64, Genesis, Saturn, and SNES. Oh, and a PC as well :). This puts me in a position to buy great games regardless of what platform their released for. This does not, unfortunately, mean that I always buy good games.

    I bought Seaman during my wait for Shenmue. It sucks. Seaman is just an arrogant asshole who rewards your hard work and tender care by flinging his excrement at you. Very little room for error means starting over at least once, which I was uninclined to do. I was perfectly nice to Seaman all the time. However, I think he turned into an asshole because he kept misinterpreting my pleasant greetings as insults of some kind. (e.g., Me: "How are you today, Seaman?" Seaman: "How rude!"). In the end the game was more creepy than fun.

    Then I got Shenmue, which sucks. It sucks for a number of reasons:

    - The user interface was designed by a perfectly competent person who has just had fourteen martinis, and this person should never be allowed to work in the games business ever again. It would seem obvious that the analog controller would be perfect for moving the guy about in a 3D world, and then you hold down some other button to put the A/C in "look-around" mode. But, no, you can _only_ move around using the D-pad, and very awkwardly (rather than turning you incrementally, pressing left turns you ninety degrees). This "having to enter zoom mode in order to be able to manipulate anything in the world" concept is also irritating, and pointless.
    Also, they provide the analog right trigger as a means to control how fast the guy walks/runs, but there are only three speeds: walking, jogging, and full-out running. Jogging is difficult to do because they have mapped it into the 43-44% range on the trigger. 44% is running. Using an analog control for this was a waste of time. Oh yes, you are unable to customise these absurd controls in any way.

    - 90% of the voice acting is bad, as if the people reading the lines are having difficulty reading the lines. Everyone speaks slowly and conversations between characters doesn't flow very well. The dialogue is boring (especially at the beginning, where it's kind of important in order to draw the player into the story, which it doesn't), and these simple, banal conversations are painfully long. Combine this with the fact that game time flows constantly (roughly 1 minute of game time per second of real time) and you have the interesting situation where I can run all the way back to my home across three towns in about fifteen minutes, but it takes half an hour to ask someone a simple question.

    - The character models are very good and very detailed (although really using only textures to achieve this - doesn't look like very many polygons were used for each character). However, everybody's face has one (count 'em, one!) expression - it never changes. The only part of the face that animates is the mouth, which does so using very lame linear interpolation. Also, if there's any attempt at lip-synch going on, I couldn't detect it.

    So I wandered around three towns asking millions of people, with unfamiliar names I couldn't remember, the same question over and over again, before I ultimately gnawed my own arm off in an attempt to escape from this rediculously dull game.

    P.S. I'm not anti-Dreamcast. I still think Soul Calibur for DC is possibly the best fighting game there is. But really, Shenmue and Seaman are dogs (I'm certain that if I had kids, I would be very concerned about letting them play with Seaman - that is one creepy game).

    Cogito ergo sum - I think, therefore I add
  • It reminds me of a comment someone once made about faculty meetings. "Faculty meetings are so contentious because the stakes are so low." Your average rabid Tickle Me Elmo buyer probably has a lower income, lower education and greater susceptibility to scarcity behavior than the average PS2 buyer.

    Then again, the average PS2 buyer in the first couple of weeks after launch was a soccer mom who also happened to be on a waiting list to pay a 20% premium on a PT Cruiser, so consumerism comes in many dysfunctional flavors.
  • I think the quality of games is directly proportional to the ease of programming. PS2 games require so much wrangling of metal that by the time you finish optimizing, there's no time left to make a good game. Maybe when developers have more time and experience with the system, games will get better -- as was the case with PS1.
  • I got my PS2 with the first shipment, but when I was at Toys R Us last Saturday they had plenty - not just reserved ones - and there was no mob scene fighting over them ala Elmo. Was this a fluke or are other people seeing them on the shelves elsewhere?
  • IMHO, stick to computer hardware. Observe the jaggies in the Top-Left corner of

    This Picture [sharkygames.com]

    featured on the linked site. Eeek! The rest looks ok, but what about anti-aliasing? The scenery looks like it's running on my attrocious 8mb Voodoo2 CE. (It's a piece of crap.)

    Save your money, and buy one of those kick-ass Matrox Millenia boxes. A 64Mb GeForce 2 Ultra won't give you jaggies.

    - Ando
  • I'm sorry, but have you even SEEN any DC games?

    Yes, I have, and I'm not too dreadfully impressed. The graphics are good enough, though only a few games really push the limits of the system, if somewhat un-inspired.

    Sonic the Hedgehog has never done it for me, and it doesn't seem to have made the transition to 3D very well at all.

    I haven't seen a DC game that really made me cream my jeans yet, and I really don't expect to. Sega has never made games that impressed me.

    Moreover, the controller seems to be designed for some species other than humans.

  • You've seen it being played? Are you sure?

    There is a playable demo of MGS2 out there (due to be shipped with Zone of Enders, another woefully underhyped Konami game with input from Hideo Kojima), but as far as I can tell not many people have had a chance to play it. Even at Konami's recent Gamers' Day the press weren't allowed to get their hands on it - the demo was played by a Konami rep.

    For more information, check out the IGN articles on the demo here [ign.com] and here [ign.com].

  • This one has been done to death elsewhere. No, the background is not pre-rendered. Yes, it is fully 3D. Just look at any of the cuboid items in the background and watch the way in which you see different sides of them as the camera moves.

    The cause of this effect is the gameplay mechanisms used by Tekken since the first game in the series. It's based on an infinite ring. No trapping your opponent in the corner. No ring-outs. Just two characters fighting. Now that works fine when you don't have any real backgrounds (as in the first games) but if you want more detail in the environments you run into problems. You need to have the infinite arena, but now you need to fit it into a finite surrounding. Something which has previously only been managed by Gallifreyans.

    Namco's approach to this in TTT works pretty well, I think. But it does make some people think that the backgrounds are pre-rendered when they're not (can't understand this myself - they're very obviously real-time for me...) The one improvement I'd suggest would be to cover up the join slightly better, with plants or scenery (some stages actually do this in TTT).

  • Re:Stop the Dreamcast advocacy! (Score:3)

    by toriver ( 11308 ) on Monday December 11, 2000 @07:20AM (#567592)
    Am I the only person who gets really annoyed by all the over-zealous Dreamcast advocates who apparently run to the web-connected machines in the library during lunch period so they can defend Sega's honor?

    Dunno, I don't Sega see them because 0wnz all the Sony fanboys who U moderate them down below my threshold.

  • It's all about atmosphere, and thus the 'emotion' engine parlance.

    I was sooo impressed with Xenogears for PSX when there were cities you entered, and there were *crowds* of people wandering, walking, shopping, chattering, etc. It made such a difference! It's like Episode 4 and Episode 4 Special Release. A whole bunch of aliens were added to the crowd scenes...

    You're accustomed to racing games, but real highways are littered with cars...

    Imagine, not a racing game, but a cross country Cannonball Run type game; not only are you racing 10 other people, but you have to deal with navigation, traffic, traffic jams, pedestrians, etc... Not possible in real life (and thus worthy of game status), and possibly quite fun!



    Geek dating! [bunnyhop.com]

  • hmmmm Virtua Vicar... theres a scary thought

  • Metal Gear Solid 2 (Score:3)

    by Galvatron ( 115029 ) on Monday December 11, 2000 @07:33AM (#567595)
    Is anyone else as amused as I am by this name? Okay, so first there was "Metal Gear," then "Snake, Rattle and Roll," then "Metal Gear Solid," now "Metal Gear Solid 2." It's almost as crazy as Street Fighter (SF, SF 2, SF Alpha, SFA2, SFA3, SF EX 3, plus a few that I can't remember).

    Seriously, I know the marketing people are always trying to come up with names to make the products seem newer and more exciting, but is it really SO bad to just follow a regular numbering system? Why do all major commercial product HAVE to come up with funky versioning systems? Intel had 286, 386, 486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, and Pentium III, and Windows had 1.x, 2.x, 3.x, 95, 98, and ME. What's wrong with these people? Numbers were invented for counting, why don't we use them for that purpose?

  • Consoles NEVER live up to their own hype. It simply isn't possible. SELDOM does a console launch with more than 3 stellar titles..Depending on who you ask, the PS2 launched with two of the best console games EVER - Madden2000 and SSX (which by the way DOES have stellar graphics which outdo the DreamCast by a mile) - plus plenty of sleeper hits such as Sky Oddessy, Smugglers Run(whoever said this had mediocre PS1 graphics was on crack), Midnight Club, TTT, Armoured Core2, DOA2:HardCore, Summoner, Fifa..and the list goes on. Sure, none of these are anything like having a freakin holodeck in your room but its. just. a. game. console. The graphics are tight (and WILL get tighter - check out GT3, Zone OF Enders, Bouncer early next year!) the games are great, I just don't understand what everyone was expecting... And how can so many of you advise us to avoid touting vaporware like MGS2, then turn around and pump up the non-existent XBOX so heavily? I'm not as overzealous as this looks. :)

  • Price? (Score:1)

    by acomj ( 20611 )
    I actually don't own a console (well I have and intellivision but that doesn't count..) and can see your point about computers being more flexible..

    but a console is NOT a computer so comparing them is silly. Computer games are different than console games as well (although a few are the same..)

    I have connectix virtual playstation which makes my 1500$ computer I run like a 100$ playstation. If you have already have a computer it makes sense, but my 19" monitor aren't nearly as big as my tv and the sound isn't as nearly as good. Parents might like to use there computers when the kids play games..Also the DVD on the computer is a pain to hook up to the TV if the machines are in different rooms.

    Also consoles work period, no new drivers, updating firmware, maintenance.
  • Sears here (Woodlands/Houston) had about 12 PS2 boxes on Saturday. Only a few folks looking at them. Nice demo machine set up (though it used a LCD display, I think the game, TTT, would have looked better on a CRT).
  • My question is, where's Crash Bandicoot, or Spyro? Not having an easily-identifiable, platform-jumping character (and associated game) at launch is a very bad move on Sony's part.

    Then again, virtually everything regarding the PS2 has been a bad move. Most of the launch titles are anemic, the actual supply of PS2s is a joke, etc. ad nauseam. I'd say that they're trying to sell it as a talented DVD player, at this point, hoping that later titles boost interest in it as an actual console.

    Regardless, I think they screwed up royally.

  • Can't believe I'm even getting into this. 1. Soul Calibur 2 is very likely to hit PS2 before Dreamcast 2. Crazy Taxi Ugh. Gimme midnight club and SR 3.Unreal Tournament PS2 Launch title 5. Half-Life Coming to PS2. Hooray for X-Box. Hooray for what? Spec Sheets? *eyes roll* Glenwood
  • That is a dreamcast site, genius. Next?
  • I'm not marketing wonk, but I know why they do this stuff. The theory is that you have to balance "letting people know this is brand new stuff" along with "letting people who liked the old stuff know they'll probably like this".

    The Grandaddy of stupid naming is the First Blood/Rambo trilogy. You start with First Blood. The sequel that that is Rambo: First Blood Part II. The rousing conclusion is named Rambo III.

    -B
  • The article is just poking a little fun at the fact that it was so hard to come by for some people that you almost HAD to break into a store to get one, however, it did not have the literal assumption that you had actually broken into a store.. Just a little joke. =}
  • http://www.avault.com/news/displaynews.asp?story=1 242000-12189 Basically, British police suspect the IRA terrorist organization is selling pirated PS2 games in order to raise money for weapons they can use to launch attacks with over the christmas period. "At least two men involved in the counterfeiting have close ties to the Real IRA leadership, police confirmed." As bad as it may sound, maybe its better to support the large, mean, money-hungry corporations on this one...
  • In a recent interview with the creator of MGS2 (I htink on IGN), he was asked if MGS2 would be done for the Xbox, and said they were not sure... it sounded though like he wanted to move on to other games.

    ---> Kendall
  • The N64 certainly wasn't "technologically backwards." It was the first console to offer texture scaling in 3 dimensions and texture filtering. It was arguably too ambitious; the silicon cost so much that Nintendo couldn't afford to include a CD drive, which has been the major factor limiting its appeal to 3rd party developers.
  • Can't blame people who want to share an underappreciated gem. Sega got a bad reputation when the Sega tanked, so a lot of people passed up the DC, which is now what the PS2 will probably be when developers figure out the thing really should be programmed.

  • As a long time dreamcaster, I played SSX and thought, remember that POS game for DC called Rippin Riders that no one bought? Apparently it's now the best PS2 launch title. SSX == sux.

  • Ever notice? (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 11, 2000 @05:31AM (#567609)
    Game reviewers, and the game press in general constantly gripe about how there is never anything new in computer or console games.

    Yet they are the first to zero in on anything different the moment it gets to market and then relentlessly criticize it, compare it unfavorably to to clones of successful games and generally stomp it into the ground.

    Then, they write columns about how all games look the same in the next issue.

    They're right, by the way. The games look great, and I'm sure they all cost millions to produce. In terms of gameplay and story, however, most are awful.

    Its really too bad.
  • One of the themes we keep repeating in the gaming world is that Nintendo tends to produce technologically backwards systems (with the possible exception of the Gamecube), but stellar games. The other companies (PS especially) seem to produce killer systems, but pretty crappy games on average. The only PS game I ever really got into was FF7 and that came out for the PC a few whiles backs (even for those without Bleem).

    So I don't find it all that surprising that the game lineup for the PS2 isn't all that great, they're just repeating history. Not that PS hasn't built some good games, several were; but only a small handful were truly great. Sega runs into the same problem, great systems, lousy games.

    If Nintendo and PS merged maybe we'd get great games on a killer system; but given the inherant evil of corporate mergers we'd probably get PS quality games on a Nintendo quality system....

  • Dreamcast (for now) has the better games (Score:3)

    by RayChuang ( 10181 ) on Monday December 11, 2000 @06:06AM (#567611)
    Folks,

    While the PlayStation2 has tremendous potential, right now you're way better off with Sega's Dreamcast.

    I mean, look at all the great games you can get for Dreamcast:

    NFL2K1--it may not have the snazzy graphics of Madden NFL 2001 for PS2, but the gameplay and the ability to do online gameplay is WAY ahead of what Madden 2001 can do.

    NBA2K1--it's probably the best NBA game I've seen so far.

    Samba de Amigo--this has got to be one of the most fun party games I've EVER played. It makes you wonder why Konami is probably kicking itself for not bringing their "Benami" games for the PlayStation market at least two years ago.

    Soul Calibur--the most stunning fighting game I've ever seen. It is truly one of the great all-time classics of the fighting game genre.

    Skies of Arcadia and Grandia II--role-playing games that really demonstrate the power of Dreamcast--and are really great games to play. Only the Final Fantasy VII-IX series can compare to how well these two DC games have been done.

    Seaman--one of the most extraordinarily quirky games around. You have to hand it to Sega to do something this unusual.

    Shenmue--no other game on ANY system approaches what amounts to an interactive movie like Shenmue does. It really is a breakthrough in many ways for any gaming console.

    Dreamfast may not have the vast number of games that are available on Sony systems, but what is available are for the most part of very high quality. That is why Americans are buying Dreamcast consoles in droves, not only because of the shortage of PS2 consoles but because Sega DOES have such a top-notch game selection now available.
  • Nah, they're using reverse marketing techniques -- its abit like reverse physcology but it doesn't work so well...
  • This is good, and hopefull. Remember when nintendo was king? Then sega took a bite out in the 16 bit days, and then sony ruled with the playstation? Now, they are falling flat. This is good, it means there won't be a monopoly. Then again sega is the least profitable company in japan right now, but there games are of much higher quality. As for good games coming out on the ps2, sure, but even the Jaguar got Tempest 2000. Let's just hope the XBox blows up or something. Don't mind me, im tired.
  • Only problem with your argument is that you still have a Playstation (assuming, because you still have the games), so you're not getting anything you couldn't anyway. And likewise, unless you've been buying your "growing collection of DVDs" without a player of some sort, you already have a player.
  • What can I say? I knew there was a sequel, and I never played it, but I knew I had heard of it, and that sounded familiar. Still, the point remains the same.
  • (in alphabetical order)

    Dreamcast: buy a system for about $150, download the games for free.

    Nintendo 64: After you buy a memory pack, three other controllers, a few memory packs Zelda, Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Super Smash Bros, and a few other games are really fun.

    PlayStation2: About $300 bucks gets you a DVD player, CD player, and the ability to play playstation 1 and 2 games. The cost is about right for all that. Of course its potential won't be realized this year but next year will give us a better look.

    Xbox: PC Components in a "console" and Microsoft's Marketing Department's wet dream.

  • Well duh, you were drunk. Everything's better when you're drunk!

    Yeah, but we were drunk when we played Soul Calibur, too! So that had the same advantage as Soulblade.. and yet we still reckoned it to be a far inferior game..

  • Soul Calibur--the most stunning fighting game I've ever seen. It is truly one of the great all-time classics of the fighting game genre.

    Surely you jest. I didn't think was even half as entertaining as the old Soulblade on the PSX. Prettier graphics, but three quarters of the gameplay left out. Sad. Me & my mates spent countless evenings drinking beer and playing Soulblade. Soul Calibur occupied our Dreamcast for half an hour before we tossed it and went back to Powerstones.

  • christmas haiku (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    the playstation two
    i won't not be receiving one
    dammit all to hell
  • I bought smugglers run but did not get past the 12 level. tried everything, but in vain :(

  • Re:Metal Gear Solid II ? (Score:3)

    by Junks Jerzey ( 54586 ) on Monday December 11, 2000 @06:17AM (#567621)
    This is THE game I`ve seen quickies on that really raised my appetite for getting one of those ps2`s (but I didn`t). Silent Hill 2 being the close second. Where are THOSE reviews?

    MGS2 is vaporware. A release date hasn't even been announced yet. And the number one rule of gaming, BTW, is never, never, NEVER advocate a game that you have not actually played. Even after being repeatedly burned by over-hyped games that turned out to be disappointing, some people just never learn.
  • Sky Odyssey is a arcade style flight game in which you pilot several planes from WW1 to present day. You fly through various caverns, in a thunderstorm, and land on a train to name a few things. Each level is something different you are doing and there are plenty of them! I recommend going to gamefaqs.com for complete info. They have links to ign and other major site and they also have a player review list, message board, walkthrough and game data for all games on all platforms.
  • Personally, I bought a DC over the PS2. Why? 'Cos the games are better. Listen... 1. Soul Calibur 2. Crazy Taxi 3. Quake III: Arena 4. Unreal Tournament 5. Half-Life 6. Phantasy Star Online And ya got all the modem-related greatness. All for half the price of a PS2.I won't be getting a PS2, because of the difficulty of programming thw machine. By the time the programmers have got up to speed on the PS2, the X-Box will be out and stompin' all over it. Hooray for X-Box.
  • The Tony Hawk Pro Skater series is one of the BEST reasons to get a Dreamcast. The excellent of controls and fluidity of movement shows programmers of this game really knew how to program the Dreamcast correctly--and then some.
  • Madden2K1 and SSX are the only two games that really have blown me away. But if those two are indications of things to come, the $300 investment could be worthwhile.
  • When the Playstation debuted, the games that were originally released at that time were not any good. Warhawk was one of the first games out on the market and everyone thought that it was great... until the second generation of games came on the market. The original Ridge Racer, which was an awesome game when it was released, fails miserably in comparison to Gran Turismo, which was released a couple of years later.

    When a new console is initially debuted, it takes the software developers some time to figure out what the machine is really capable of doing, and how to take advantage of the hardware. And as is the case of the Playstation, the software developers would complain to Sony to open up more of the functions provided by the dedicated processors such as the texturing, matrix and graphics processors.

    It was only after the second playstation developers conference, when they opened up more of what was going on under the covers, and provided the developers with more technical details of what the hardware was doing, allowing the programmers to access the hardware directly instead of using the Sony API's, that the quality of games began to increase.

    And I expect that it will be the same with the PS2 - after the developers hack on the box for a year and start to understand the hardware better, they will demand better access to the hardware of the box - and when Sony opens this up, the quality and sophistication of the games will skyrocket.

  • I think that the Playstation 2 is a bunch of crap. Especially after Sony and the shortage of 50% of the million PS2's. I personally won't buy one. I am waiting for the X-Box which is supposed to have a tweaked version of nvidia's nv25 chip (two generations ahead. I will have to get the Gamecube as well though, just because I am a loyal nintendo fan and it has a few garaunteed hits (Zelda, Mario, Metroid, etc). My only disappointment is that Metal Gear Solid 2 will be on the PS2. That is the only game that I see for the PS2 which I know can't be replaced by any game that will come out on either the X-Box or the GameCube. All that I have to say is kudos to Sony and their ability to create a high demand for a limited quantity item. But for the sane among us, we'll wait for the better systems (ones that don't try to support DVD but then fail miserably on release). The PS2 may be the best now but just wait a few months and watch how much better the competition will look. Let's just hope that this time nintendo can get more great games, rather than have a few really awesome games and an awesome system, but no large game library to choose from.
  • Wasn't Snake, Rattle, and Roll a completely different game where you could control a snake in a somewhat isometric view? I don't remember it being a part of the Metal Gear saga, but I could be wrong.
  • And the number one rule of gaming, BTW, is never, never, NEVER advocate a game that you have not actually played. Even after being repeatedly burned by over-hyped games that turned out to be disappointing, some people just never learn.

    The same goes for movies or any other entertainment venue. Companies or people that put out solid strings of good products can suddently tank. Star Wars 1, anyone? Actually I didn't think it was so bad (I think people had overly high expectations and overly hyped it based on not seeing it) but I didn't think that the original trilogy was all that great, but I was young then, I do have an unwatched trilogy LD set, I'll try to watch it this Christmas, so nobody flame me OK?

  • Smuggler's Run (Score:4)

    by rde ( 17364 ) on Monday December 11, 2000 @03:52AM (#567630)
    Finally, a chance to get it off my chest...
    Smuggler's Run has been ingnored by some (including this page) and dissed by others as useless, but it's the most compelling game I've played in a while. I finished it a couple of days ago, and my life seems emptier now.
    Before you give up, this isn't a game review as much as an observation on gaming.

    Smuggler's Run is an off-road car game; you bounce all over the hills and dales while avoiding myriad cops. The game has little by way of extras; there's no finishing movie, the intro movie is perfunctory at best, and the graphics would have looked only average on a Playstation One. However, the game itself is ridiculously addictive.

    Remember all the Crystal/Design Design games on the spectrum? This is like that. It's designed with the gamer in mind, not the dolt who's more impressed with pretty graphics. When you restart the game, you start immediately. None of that crappy 360-circling views; you press (X) and you start. Similarly, there's nothing to delay the advance to the next level.

    When I play a game, it's a game. I'm not being lara croft, I'm guiding a bunch of pixels around the screen. No matter how realistic the graphics get, that'll always be the case, and I'll always be aware that that's the case. I don't care about pretty graphics, fancy sound effects or end-of-level movies. I just want a good game.

    To encapsulate: Review Smuggler's Run, You bastards. It's great.
  • ..this game is just plain awesome. Never mind the hokey screenshots on the box. I took a chance on this one on launch day, and it's worth every penny. The sheer speed of the game is amazing, quite dizzying at times, even with 12 bots with highest AI and 4 players it's amazing. It has a pretty thin storyline, but playing story levels is quite addictive and it helps build skill. The controls are great, left analog for forward/backward/strafe and right analog for 3d view. The best part of the story levels, however, is that when you pass them you win more levels/playable characters for the deathmatch, which is where the game really shines. The death match, last man standing, capture the bag (yes, bags), bag tag, and escort are quite entertaining, with many very well designed levels. The characters and animations are great. On top of arcade/story levels there are challenge levels, which range from breaking windows in china to blowing head off the undead, to killing duck, to... Elvis, you've just got to play this one, pluas after passing challenge levels you get to use characters from them to play the game, lots of funny "cheats" that you win as you pass levels. This game has unlimited play potential. IDNWFE ( I do not work for EIDOS)

    Mike
  • Except its not a haiku AND its also not English.
  • I'll wait till the games worth waiting for are there, and maybe then I'll consider buying a PS2. With a little luck there might actually be such a thing as a store having one in stock by then :-(
  • I'll have to take a look at Smuggler's Run. . .

    GunGriffon Blaze has been fun enough so far. Unreal Tournament has not transferred well to the PS2, imho, although I've not yet tried it out on the PS2 with a USB keyboard & mouse. I'll probably just stick to playing it on the G3.

    Tekken Tag Tournament, is great. I bought the system for that game (& went ahead & bought the multi-tap & three more controllers. Pair Play Mode is much more fun than playing against the machine, or only one human opponent. Having to coordinate tag-ins with someone else can be nerve-wracking & fun). I also bought the system for Silent Hill 2 (Autumn '01 according to http://ps2.ign.com) & Aliens: Colonial Marines, two games that I must play, no matter what. Silent Hill 1 still kicks ass nearly two years later. None of the Resident Evil games have scared me the way Silent Hill has.

    The PS2, for the moment, has the contracts for the games that I will pay to play, period. Of course, the Dreamcast has several games I'd love to play, too. The N64 has Goldeneye. . .I'm totally ignorant of the rest of that system's selection.
  • One of the few real gems among the mostly lackluster crew of PS2 games. It has the (nearly) mindless fighting of Double Dragon, but you can go anywhere, and you even need a bit of strategy to decide where to go to best help your army, because if your leader dies, you lose.
  • I CANNOT WAIT FOR SILENT HILL 2

    That game is going to kick ass. . .Aliens: Colonial Marines will hopefully be fun as well.

  • Is the huge selection of games with years of backwards compatibility. Abandonware, crappy freeware games, emulator games, game mods like counterstrike etc. are things you will never see in the console world.
  • Why do you care about shortages? I certainly dont. Let the chumps and geeks pay full whack for it now; I want a ps2 but i doubt i`ll get one before next summer/xmas. By then the price will have been reduced by at least 20%, there`ll be new versions of some of the internal software, loads of good games etc.
  • ..that's what married geeks do with their time, they spend the weekend playing videogames together. =)

  • What was the point? (Score:4)

    by x mani x ( 21412 ) <.ac.lligcm.sc. .ta. .esahgm.> on Monday December 11, 2000 @03:56AM (#567640) Homepage
    If you're going to post a halfassed "story", at least do it right.

    Many gaming sites, like IGN [ign.com] have full PS2 launch game overviews, and they at least aren't forgetting games like Ridge Racer V or Tekken Tag Tournament. The newsworthiness of this story is, um, sketchy at best.
  • I too noticed that... it doesn't seem to me like the background is prerendered. It's hard to explain but i think that the programers would have done this so that the backgrounds would always look good and not too far away.... the actual area that your players can fight in extends to infinity (i havent played it mind you, only watched my mates go at it).

    It's very distracting though IMHO.

    BenM
  • I have connectix virtual playstation which makes my 1500$ computer I run like a 100$ playstation.

    Hell, I play PSX games through VGS on "my" (work) $4,400 laptop. :P

    The graphics are a little grainy (VGS doesn't do anti-aliasing or other gfx tricks like Bleem!, but then it also actually plays the games smoothly as opposed to Bleem!'s choppy play), but the gameplay and sound are both perfect on a P3-700.

    -Legion

  • But what I wanna know is can we mod-chip em and play without paying the huge corporations tax. I'd much rather support my local Thai cd dealer who is getting a good deal outta selling the games rather than a pimply teenager working for a monopoly who is getting shafted by the pitiful wage.

  • Re:The jaggies!!! The jaggies!!!! They burn my sou (Score:3)

    by Malc ( 1751 ) on Monday December 11, 2000 @12:09PM (#567644)
    How bad are those jaggies on a cheap TV? Cheap TVs do their own anti-aliasing by the nature of their fuzziness! How noticeable are they 8ft from the screen?
  • Arrrrgh! I've had the PS2 since it was launched (that was what, in April? ... I live in Japan) and the only game I liked well enough to buy so far has been Ridge Racer 5, and believe me, my PS2 has been sitting collecting dusts for months.

    I've been dying to get my hands on some flight sims (jet airline simulation, or fighter action, etc.), train sims (Densha de Go! optimized for the PS2?), sub sims, etc. but so far all that seem to come out are lame RPG and fighting games. :-(

    Anybody know what's coming down the pipe by summer of next year? If so, I'd love to see a link...
  • That would be whores. Not hoars.

  • Just go to ps2.ign.com or Dailyradar... (Score:5)

    by ZaMoose ( 24734 ) on Monday December 11, 2000 @05:42AM (#567647)
    ...for FAR better coverage of the PS2 launch games (that's right everybody, it's called PS2, NOT PSX2, nor PS/2. Just plain PS2).

    It's amazing that this is what passed for SharkyGames' PS2 "coverage". A large number of games were just plain left off the list (Armored Core 2, Midnight Club Racing, Dynasty Warriors 2, Ready 2 Rumble Round 2, Smugglers' Run to name a few). The reviewer also seems to be confused as to which games were out at launch and which came out later (such as Nascar 2001). If we're going to include recently released games, why not include Gradius III/IV, Fifa 2001, Super Bust-a-Move, Theme Park Rollercoaster, etc.)

    For those of you who have obtained a PS2 (hooray for camping out at WalMart the night before launch!) and are unsure as to what to get, here are my reccommendations:
    -SSX: Everyone seems to agree that this is probably the best launch game out there. Buy it/rent it and you'll see why.
    -Madden/Fifa 2001: for the sports fans out there, these games are great.
    -Super Bust-a-Move:Yeah, it looks childish, but good grief is it addicting! A puzzle game that's the latest in a long series, you can't go wrong with this one. Girlfriends/fiancees/grandmothers/people who've never seen a console before can pick this one up and become addicted, quickly I might add.
    -Tekken Tag Tournament: Great fighting game, lots of extra fighters to unlock, and once you unlock the Bowling Mode (you heard me right), you'll do more bowling than actual fighting. Too cool.
    -Dynasty Warriors 2:Imagine a 3D clone of Final Fight with strategy elements and a morale meter, set in 2nd century China. You can have up to 40 other characters on screen at the same time, shortly before you whupp the tar out of them, that is. Oh, and plowing through the ranks of the enemy on horseback, bowling enemy soldiers over left and right is just a little too fun...
    -Theme Park Rollercoaster: Umm, Sim City meets Roller Coaster Tycoon, only you can wander your creations in 3D and even ride your coasters. Prepare to lose some sleep.

    Games to watch for in the coming months:
    -Gran Turismo 3: All I can say is: wow! If you've seen any of the gameplay movies from this upcoming racing game, then you've begun to witness the future of driving simulations. It's eerie how lifelike the replays look.
    -Zone of Enders (Z.O.E.): Should be hitting the US lat 1st quarter. Think to yourself: Neon Genesis crossed with a bit of Gundam Wing and Escaflowne. Oh, and it comes with a playable demo of Metal Gear Solid 2. Yowsa.
    -Metal Gear Slid 2: Sons of Liberty: If you haven't played MGS for the PSX or the PC, do yourself a favor and do so. Then go watch a trailer for MGS2 and try not to drool on yourself.

    Just my $.02.


    -------------

  • Re:Dreamcast (for now) has the better games (Score:3)

    by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Monday December 11, 2000 @06:18AM (#567648)
    Let's not forget DOA2, which looks the same on the PS2 and the DC (with the exception of the boss level which added motion blur on the PS2). I've heard praise about Tekken Tag Tournament, but I really personally never enjoyed any of the Tekken games. The fighting engine seemed a bit too slow and clumsy. Namco's DOA2 (the Japanese Limited Edition) on the other hand, is the game I've spent the most time playing on my DC. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (a direct port if the PSX game, mind you) is excellent as well.

    By the time I get tired of the DC the NGC or the X-Box will be out. Since I already have a DVD player, I won't be needing a PS2.

  • IMHO, stick to computer hardware. Observe the jaggies in the Top-Left corner of this picture

    Hmmm...it never occurred to me to poke around the web looking for jaggies in screenshots. I usually just enjoy playing the games.
  • i'm an ex-saturn owner, if i buy a console i don't want to see it die again in the 1st year of it's existence...
  • Am I the only person who gets really annoyed by all the over-zealous Dreamcast advocates who apparently run to the web-connected machines in the library during lunch period so they can defend Sega's honor? Shudder. I mean, yeah, the DC is a nice machine with nice games. So are all the other consoles I've ever played. But the raving and mindlessness really turns me off on the DC. I want a game system. I don't want to buy into a phony counter-culture.
  • It's blatant in the screenshot, and it's a link off the featured site. If I'm paying top-dollar for a console, I want it to have the best graphics possibble. This doesn't.

    Btw, Does anybody have a link to the Matrox system mentioned?

    - Ando
  • I bought the original PSX to be able to play Twisted Metal. When I was at Best Buy looking through the already-released games on PS2 Eve, I saw Smuggler's Run and decided I'd be waiting in line at an ungodly hour the next morning. It's not a car-combat game... more along the lines of Driver.

    For me, the single most amazing thing about SR is the sense of space. On PSX, Vigilante 8 did a great job of capturing this (at least compared to other PS games I'd played), and on PS2, SR takes that to another level. From the top of a hill, you can see for what seems like miles. Good stuff!

  • Crazy Taxi justifies the price of a Dreamcast by itself. Highly original and amazingly fun. $100 to get you three blocks in 20 seconds? Done! When played in 3 minute mode, a great party game.

    Jet Grind Radio is an acquired taste. Dodging traffic, spraypainting tags. The cel-shader on the characters is kinda neat.

    Tony Hawk 2. Even cooler than the excellent Tony Hawk. And the Dreamcast version is nicer looking than the Playstation (1) version.

  • yup, i loved snake rattle and roll, a snake game --not a metal gear game
  • Personally, I bought a DC over the PS2. Why? 'Cos the games are better. Listen... 1. Soul Calibur 2. Crazy Taxi 3. Quake III: Arena 4. Unreal Tournament 5. Half-Life 6. Phantasy Star Online And ya got all the modem-related greatness. All for half the price of a PS2.I won't be getting a PS2, because of the difficulty of programming thw machine. By the time the programmers have got up to speed on the PS2, the X-Box will be out and stompin' all over it. Hooray for X-Box.

    Thank you for a picture perfect example of mindless and annoying advocacy.

  • Stay away from Shenmue. I wasted my money on it, perhaps I can help someone else save their money.

    The above poster commented, "Shenmue--no other game on ANY system approaches what amounts to an interactive movie like Shenmue does." It is like an movie. You can passively watch a great many prescripted scenes. If you fail in one of the many action scenes, you get to retry it over and over again until you get it right so the movie can continue. Is it time to return home or return to work, you have no option to ignore it. Want to practice fighting when you want in the first third of the game, sorry, no. Most of the game is wandering around taling to people until you talk to the right person to advance the plot. You're free to do as much non-plot advancing stuff as you want (playing arcade games, buying toys, drinking soda), but you have no real control over the plot elements. The "Magic Weather" is cute, but not a real gameplay element. Shenmue is some of the most self-indulgent crap Sega has dumped on gamers.

    Sega's "famed designer" Yu Suzuki is a joke. His previous experience making arcade racing games and fighting games in no way prepared him for creating either an adventure game.

    Two years ago I saw Nintendo head designer, Shigeru Miyamoto at the Game Developer's conference. His keynote spoke to his equals, other game developers. He talked of his hopes, his dreams, and his work. He discussed playability and the line between designers and programmers. It was a great talk.

    Last year Suzuki gave a keynote. Instead of a talk, he was "interviewed" by a Sega marketing person. He was fed shamelessly fluffy questions. He didn't talk about the difficulties. He didn't talk about game design. He didn't discuss making a game playable. He pimped Shenmue's pretty graphics and technical tricks. I was sleazy marketing drivel. It was the worst talk I've ever seen.

    The only thing Shenmue has going for it is the graphics. It is very pretty. But it's not playable. Save your money. Get something else.

  • You mean like the huge catalogue of Playstation One/PSX titles that the PS2 can run...
  • Hear hear... Like "We haven't seen this game but we're going to compare this game with it".... That's not complete, not useful and not newsworthy...
  • It was a good marketing strategy by Sony, but I doubt that there will be very many GREAT games for the PSX2. The only games that I liked fromt the PSX1 were the Final Fantasy games and Metal Gear Solid.
  • I found SR to be a terrific game. It was even amusing for half an hour to just go joyriding. In Joyriding mode, you just get to go driving over a course with no pesky cops or mission objectives. You just choose a car and go driving on a level. For those that enjoy the scenery of games, this is a must have, that more games should include. The other game I have is Armored core. It is a fun Mech game that is proving a bit difficult. It is more a traditional game along the lines of MechWarrior2/Mercenaries/Mech3. If anything it is like Mech2 because you have both missions and ranking arena battles. Money management is also important as you decide what upgrades to buy, and and having enough to conduct repairs after a mission. I have gone on a couple of missions where I made virtually no money because of replacing missiles and repairing damage. I am surprised that a Twisted Metal V or somesuch was not available for PS2. I played Rush 2049 for DC, and while the races are so so, the battle and stunt mode are quite fun.

  • This is THE game I`ve seen quickies on that really raised my appetite for getting one of those ps2`s (but I didn`t). Silent Hill 2 being the close second. Where are THOSE reviews ? It seems SharkyGames settled wih just about evey lame pc convert there is, and the reviews are not exactly refreshing or in-depth either. Surely there are lots more goodies out there, maybe not yet released, but close to that point. If you`re going to give an overview of the best ps2 games, at least give ratings and propper content. This site still leaves me hanging in the dark.

  • Yeah. He got the name of the Metal Gear sequel wrong. It was actually "Metal Gear: Solid Snake." Then there was also another game called "Metal Gear: Snake's Revenge."

  • Every time I see people talking about this game, it's always "Well, Tekken Tag is supposed to be better." The fact that I agree with this statement nonwithstanding, I have to wonder if these people bashing DOA2 have ever actually played it.

    This game is no slouch. Graphically it's amazing, flawed only by the PS2's jaggies. There are actually large differences between fighting styles between characters, and it makes for a very interesting mix. And with counters, throw-cancels, explosive walls, and stage breaks, the gameplay can be surprisingly deep.

    I'll be the first to admit it's not perfect. Kasumi is terribly unbalanced. The AI cheats terribly at the higher difficulty levels. On the desert stage you can see the line where the mip-map pops in and out. And the game that it's descended from, DOA1, was among the worst fighting games I've ever played.

    But do not underestimate this title. If you enjoy good twitch fighters then this game (while not as deep as Tekken Tag) is still highly enjoyable, very easy on the eyes, and a hell of a lot of fun to play. Don't believe the hype. Before you judge this game, rent it for a couple of days and actually play it. And read the manual so you know how to set up buttons, turn on the analog for free movement, and use the moves list in the sparring mode to practice moves. I think a lot of casual fighting game players may be pleasantly surprised by this game. Personally, I put it only slightly below Soul Caliber for the Dreamcast, which is high praise indeed.

    Oh, last thing. For god's sake turn OFF the english dubbing! There's an option to turn on Japanese voices with english subtitles. Use it! A few voice actors are great (Bass, Lei-Fang) but most are mediocre, and some are just abominable. Keep it subbed. You'll be happy you did.

    -Ben

  • Looks like they've been recycling the games from my old Commodore C64.

    Give me back Monty on the Run, damn you!!

  • A lot of people in this thread have rubbished the PS2 and Sony. I'm not a big fan of, but from past performance you can tell that Sony is a shrewd player. In terms of popularity (certainly in the UK) the PS1 wiped the floor with all competitors (N64, Dreamcast, etc.). This could be down to clever marketing (getting the product out at the right time, and at the right price, etc.), or the fact that PS games are cheap to produce, or simply that there were more games available for the PS1. Whatever it was due to, you can bet that Sony won't have forgotten how they did it.

    Weather Sony really have got a problem supplying enough PS2's is another question. It could all be part of the marketing strategy. IMHO, the PS2 is out there at the right time (i.e. before the X-Box). If Sony can get the developers to churn out games like they did with the PS1, it'll be hard for any other console to get the same sort of market share.

    ----------------------------
  • If that was all you liked then there`s probably not much point in you getting one.
    To be honest i didnt like any of the games that came out for the SNES or Genesis, so i just stuck with the Amiga. Then again, the same games come out for all platforms now (with the exception of some of the more tedious pc games, and only slightly less tedious N64 ones), so it seems to matter less and less which one you get. Sounds like you should wait for the next Nintendo console, though you may want a PS2 just to tide you over until its finally released.
  • I'm starting to wonder whether or not there are actually two versions of Nascar. The first is the version that reviewers are sent resulting in comments like 'good looking racing sim with excellent physics' and 'the graphics are very clean, with good downfield visibility'.

    The second version is the one that I have played. It is appalling! Probably no more than 2mb of textures per frame, with one small texture for track another for grass and another for fence. The sky looks airbrushed. The game switches to low-res mode if you turn on the rear-view mirror or more than one car is on screen.

    The physics are laughable, playing more like a PSX game.

    So, can anyone explain why a game that is so obviously bad is getting good reviews?
  • Why does that soo remind me of a paticular operating system?
  • Ummm... You're a newlywed, and you spend the entire weekend playing videogames?

  • I was lucky enough to see some videos of MGS2 on XBox.. the anti-aliasing kicks the PS2s ass.. it looks good on PS2 but looks INCREDIBLE on Xbox.

    -gerbik
  • I don't get it. I can read /. daily and see some story regarding Napster or DeCSS and how evil Sony and crowd are, and yet post a story about PS2 and you all turn into a bunch of corporate hoars.

    Do you realize that every penny you give Sony is a penny that they have to use in their fight against Napster/2600/etc? Are you all made of so much rubber that you can't resist the pull of corporate marketing....or is it simply a case that the whole lot of you are a bunch of hypocrites?

    Ya, that's what I thought.

  • The Games will get better (Score:3)

    by kastlyn ( 255695 ) on Monday December 11, 2000 @04:17AM (#567686)
    My husband and I were two of the lucky ones who got our reservation in for the PS2 last January, and we almost didn't get it because release date was so soon after our wedding. Let me tell you, $316.04 was a little hard to come by.. it was SO worth it, though.

    I, not being a sports game fan, was very dissapointed in the small ammount of release titles as well as the fact that most of them didn't look to be worth $52.00. However, we shelled out the money for Summoner as well as Tekken Tag, and I don't regret it. I don't feel that the games review did justice to Summoner. It's a great RPG, and I for one love the fact that there are so many side quests. I like the fact that I can pick and choose which ones I want to do, and still be able to know that all these side quests will take hours to complete, but I can go to the next part of the game any time I want.

    And Tekken Tag? All I have to say is that I've had more fun with that game than I have had with any other fighting game ever. The thing that I always hated most about fighting games was the fact that you couldn't play arcade mode with two players, and so in order to beat the game and unlock secret characters and whatever else you could unlock, you had to take turns with your friends, and there was a lot of just sitting there watching the other person play. Besides that, there was never enough stuff to unlock. Neither of these are true in Tekken Tag. There is so much variety in the things to can do: Screen shots, Theatre, team play, survivor mode, etc.. My personal favorite is Tekken Bowl. Tekken is an all-around AWESOME game, and I highly reccomend it to you all. My husband and I have spent many a weekend glued to the PS2 with Tekken Tag, and still have yet to unlock everything. It's not a game, it's an adventure. =)

    But, besides those two games, I haven't played any of the other PS2 games as of yet, and I think that's the best part. If it was any other gaming system that came out with such a crappy selection of release titles, I wouldn't waste my money on it until a game came out that I REALLY wanted to play (hint:Nin64), but with the PS2, I can play my library of Playstation games on the system (*Without* having to dish out any cash), and watch our growing collection of DVDs. Yeah, it's a slow-start for the PS2, but it WILL get better..

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